The fact is that all future cycles of evolution and epochs of civilization are played out as if behind the closed eyelids of the human being. The individual human being is the location of all future developments of planetary evolution. And if you blink you may miss it. We spend our time thinking that the evolution of the universe is a cold, impersonal force, proceeding from Big Bang to Final Crunch. But really, truthfully, it all takes place in the interplay of light and dark within the silent consciousness of the human being.

It all depends on two things: the degree to which you find yourself longing intuitively for the path of Light to reach its goal within you; and the faith that Light has in you to reveal and further its purposes. These aspects of reverence and faith belong to human and divine feeling and immediately render the course of history personal and intimate rather than cold and remote. Nothing is further from the truth than the notion that the universe would proceed on its way without us and that we are just a meaningless speck in a galactic dust-cloud. Perhaps it takes a mystic to see and say this. But in fact all it takes is the simple honesty of the heart being true to itself.

In Andersen’s beautiful story of the Snow-Queen, young Kay has a speck of darkness caught in his eye. He forgets the simple truths of the heart and absorbs himself in abstractions. It takes the warmth, love and perseverance of Gerda to bring him back. This is an image of our times and one that is suitable for the dark days of December in 2012, when the heart hardly knows how to reach forward out of its terrifying darkness but longs to do so. It is a true picture of the Arctic night of materialism and abstract intellectualism which have lodged themselves in the human eye.

In the poem below I have visualized the Northern Lights appearing as if behind my closed eyelids. I see the very particles of darkness assembling themselves in great swathes of color to prepare the Path of Light itself. But at the same time it is the longing and reverence I feel – to make myself into the sky where those lights can shine, or the page on which their words can be written – that ensures the birth of Light. Yes, these are Advent thoughts, but Advent has been the whole of human history. It enacts itself behind our closed eyelids and has the capacity to open out into an immense new epoch.

Northern Lights

Through closed eyes I see the Northern Lights
performing their remembrance of sun.
My heart is still and if you will
you may walk there. The aurora
is an open gate, a sea of particles
unveiling Light’s choice of birth on earth.
How open eyes must close and closed must open!
There is no greater reverence than this,
that the very pieces of darkness
prepare in great swathes
the path of Light.

Midnight swings on its hinge,
an opening and closing door.
This ink in the pen thickens,
then thins again down to nothing.
Remembrance and birth,
birth and remembrance.
I long to be a sky for the lights,
a page for the transpiring words!
There is no greater faith than this,
that the sentient darkness
has placed the path of Light
on the inside of my closed eyelids.

IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-)

What is 14 + 3 ?

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